Yesterday, "Parasite" changed the history of the Oscars.
It became the first Asian film to win best picture.
It is currently the only film that has won both Best International Film (formerly Best Foreign Language Film) and Best Picture.
This year's Oscars renamed best foreign language film to "Best International Feature Film".
In addition to the unlimited scenery of "Parasite", several other nominated films are also very worth watching.
The reigning king of many fans, "Pain and Glory".
It was also nominated for Best Documentary in Honey Land.
The French dark horse "Les Misérables", which won the Jury Prize at Cannes.
And, this very niche Polish film that is worth recommending to everyone -
The Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi
Poland.
A small country in Eastern Europe.
But it has given birth to many famous film masters:
Kieslowski (Blue, White, Red Trilogy, Ten Commandments),
Andrey Vajda (Ashes and Diamonds, Iron Man),
Andrei Zulaski (Silver Planet, Possessed),
Roman Polanski (Polish; Pianist, Chinatown)
Wait a minute......
The complex and unique social history and culture, the geographical environment sandwiched between Eastern Europe and the West, and the religious beliefs that are deeply rooted in the marrow of the bones have made Polish cinema maintain a certain unique position in the world film world.
Director Jan Comasa is also a follower of this film culture.
As his third feature film, this film won the Oscar nomination for foreign language film with its solid play and style, representing the recognition of the industry.
Rotten Tomatoes is 96% good, the audience is 98% positive, and word of mouth is also evident.
The film is based on true events.
In simple terms, it tells the story of a twenty-year-old juvenile parolee who comes to town and mistakenly disguises himself as a priest.
Being young means not doing things well, and parole means sin.
These two qualities are too far removed from the image of "pastor" authority, tradition, poise, and justice.
This "dislocation of identity" has always been very dramatic.
The male protagonist's name is Daniel.
Calm and silent, a pair of melancholy eyes seem to hide many secrets behind them.
From a "mainstream" point of view, he is a standard bad youth, a moth of society.
Drugging, robbery, fighting, and entering a juvenile detention center at a young age.
Even in prison, he was "restless."
The first scene of the film is a prison bullying incident.
A gang punched and kicked a cellmate, and Daniel was the one in charge of looking at the wind.
At this time, he did not seem to have much empathy for "goodness".
However, the picture turns and comes to the second scene.
Daniel transformed himself into the lead singer of the juvenile institute Father Thomas as the dispersal.
The devotion in his eyes and the dedication of the lead singer saw the pursuit of "beauty".
One good and one evil, its complex and indistinguishable personality is intuitively displayed to the audience.
Soon, Daniel was released on parole.
He approached Father Thomas and asked if he could enter seminary and become a priest.
He got a negative answer.
Because of his indelible criminal record, there would be virtually no seminary willing to accept him.
Eventually, he was introduced to work in a sawmill in a remote town.
Small-town life is boring and tedious, and life is muddy.
One day, Daniel came to the church in the town and met a young and beautiful local girl, Marta.
The town is a closed society of acquaintances, and the small circles know each other.
Marta guessed at a glance that Daniel was supposed to be a new sawmill worker.
But not knowing where the vanity came from, Daniel insisted that he was a passing priest.
He also took out a set of stolen sacrificial clothes as proof.
The young and innocent Marta was suddenly intimidated and introduced him to his mother, Lydia, the caretaker of the church.
When the local priest heard the news, he also warmly welcomed him.
In the presence of the real priest, Daniel describes himself as "Father Thomas from Warsaw".
Small misunderstandings then evolved into big scams.
Daniel, who had stabbed the basket, wanted to escape, but was confronted with an accident in which the local priest was seriously ill.
At the behest of the latter, Daniel decided to be an "acting priest" for a few days.
All he had to do was try to make sure he didn't get recognized.
First, the most common job is to listen to the confessions of believers in the confessional room.
Not knowing what to say, he had to check his mobile phone on the Internet and rack his brains to find ways to answer questions.
The mother of a violent child cried and told him that her twelve-year-old had learned to smoke.
Daniel replied:
"Buy a pack of the strongest cigarettes for a child to smoke, and he won't smoke anymore."
This method is practical, but it is clearly not the answer that the confessor wants.
This mother just wants to find a "reason" for God to forgive her for domestic violence, and what she is looking for is a kind of peace of mind that uses punishment as a name to inflict "small evil".
Daniel realized this.
So, as a priest, he forgave her.
Confession is still a simple model.
Soon, Daniel faced his biggest challenge.
In the church, facing everyone, he holds a dispersal for the believers.
After all, with so many pairs of eyes watching, a slight flaw may be revealed.
Very testing psychological quality.
At first, Daniel was a little rusty and timid, but gradually he seemed to have truly become "Father Thomas".
He completed a perfect Thomas-like diffusion.
And once again he sang the hymns he was best at.
Perhaps because the original priest was too dogmatic and rigid, Daniel's passionate prayer ignited the enthusiasm of the believers, and the church, which was originally attended by a small number of participants, gradually became lively.
At this point, the story still develops in the normal logic of the original setting.
But the ambition of the film is not here.
As Daniel's knowledge of the people deepens, he gradually discovers the town's hidden secrets.
It all started at the memorial hall at the intersection of the town, where six portraits of young people were hung.
Bereaved families hold a prayer there every night, but whenever Daniel asks why, people keep it secret.
Daniel wanted to help people out of their misery as a priest, but it didn't work.
Until Lydia told Daniel the truth, it turned out that it was a car accident that had pulled the whole town into the abyss.
Two cars collided, no one survived, and the police could not find the cause.
On one side are six young people from the town, and on the other side is a middle-aged driver.
The driver became a "murderer" used by the townspeople to vent their emotions, and even refused to allow him to be buried in the town.
His widow, who is still alive, is the wordless victim of this tragedy.
She shut herself in the house and refused to go out, and the words "bitch" written outside the house were like seals that imprisoned her inside.
Everyone in the town had written to curse her.
His sense of mission as a "priest" led Daniel to help the driver get buried.
Even in the face of the anger and opposition and even revenge of the whole town, he insisted on accomplishing this "good deed of God".
In this film, Daniel, posing as a priest, is a contradictory person.
He was sometimes indifferent to the precepts, and at other times stubbornly practiced the good thoughts and good deeds of the teachings.
You can't see whether he is using religion as an excuse to escape, or whether he is truly moved by faith in his heart.
This is the opposite of the average person in the town.
They are devout believers on the outside, but behind the scenes, they inevitably treat others in a "small evil" way.
Religion still seems to be a way of peace of mind.
At the end of the film, the real Father Thomas appears and takes him back to the juvenile detention center.
Daniel completed the last dispersion for all the townspeople—
He stripped off his clothes, revealing tattoos and scars on mortal flesh, and left the church without a word.
In an interview, the director confessed that the car accident in the film alluded to the 2010 Polish presidential plane crash.
The accident, in which 96 people were killed (including the president), became "the most tragic event in post-war Poland".
The "leader" passed away, and an air crash easily split the country into different factions.
Some people simply regard it as a tragedy;
Others firmly believe that this is a "political conspiracy".
Behind the different understandings reflected the social and political differences in Poland, and even aroused suspicion and evil among different factions.
Behind the chaos, Catholics, who make up 86 percent of Poland, seem to be praying for a saint who will fall from the sky and change everything.
But there is no such thing as a saint who can truly eliminate suffering and calamity.
In this film, when the "saint" fades his sacrificial clothes to reveal his truest flesh, he is just a combination of a mortal and a pious person.
At the end of the day, it's a story of redemption.
It is not just the salvation of one person, but the redemption between different groups and different views.
What really brings people to let go of their mustards and understand each other is not the belief in religion or the desire for miracles.
You can't expect something from the outside world to change reality.
Strength has always come from itself.
For every ordinary mortal who bears some kind of fault.
Salvation is about life itself.
It is faith in good deeds, tolerance, and sincerity.
For a society, a country made up of countless people.
Salvation is about collective consciousness.
It is a belief in inclusion, understanding and trust.
A saint who has never descended from heaven;
And only every mortal, step by step pilgrimage.